development of an undergraduate distance learning engineering degree for industry--a university/industry collaboration, The

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 1998 by Bengiamin, Nagy N, Johnson, Arnold, Zidon, Margaret, Moen, Donald, Ludlow, Douglas K

In 1993, Dupont, GE Plastics, and Hutchinson Technology, Inc., along with 3M, formed the CEDP Consortium. The members of the consortium contributed funds in the form of a membership fee to acquire equipment and provide operating expenses. Participating faculty members also receive monetary compensation for additional workload. Twenty six leading companies, including Intel Corporation, Lucent Technology and Hewlett Packard, are participating in the program today. For more information, visit the CEDP World Wide Web site at http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/sem. Figure 1 shows admissions data for the CEDP.

III. THE PROGRAM

This CEDP has the same objectives as the on-campus program and, for the most part, it requires the same course work. Students receive videotapes of the lectures given on campus on a regular basis, and submit the same homework assignments as on-campus students. All basic science and engineering subjects required for our on-campus curricula are available to CEDP students. The same exams taken by on-campus students are required of CEDP students, but are taken on-site through a company proctor. Semesterlong laboratory courses, however, are condensed; for every one semester credit of lab, there is a corresponding one week on-campus lab session. The regular laboratory exercises are performed by CEDP students and the required reports are expected.

The nature of industry students who already have some knowledge of engineering problems, design, and know-how from experience compelled us to create a mechanism for assessing a student's experiential and technical background in the field of engineering. This information enables us to establish an individualized curriculum plan for the CEDP student. Competencies in areas like engineering graphics, computer programming, communication, ethics and team work, to name a few, may fulfill the objectives of some traditional skill/broad-knowledge oriented courses. If identified effectively, duplication in developing these skills and basic knowledge can be avoided. In the Spring of 1996, we instituted Engineering 100: Professional Development, a one-credit course that requires the compilation of a portfolio.4,5 The required contents for the portfolio are given in table 1.

Via this course, CEDP students can save three to four semesters of classes depending on whether they were taking one or two courses each semester. We have decided to extend the same option to on-campus students who also have work experience that parallels course content. Based on the industry student's work experience in the "real world" of engineering. Table 2 lists the courses considered for exemption.

Students also follow the accepted university procedures for seeking credit for general education requirements which can be challenged through the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) for credit. The rest of the program of study is identical to the oncampus program. Courses made available to the CEDP students have increased since 1988 (figure 2).